A wireless telecommunications network may use a paging channel to transmit control information to one or more mobile stations. For example, the network may receive a request to connect an incoming call to a target mobile station. In response, the network may page the target mobile station by transmitting a page message in the paging channel. The page message may identify the target mobile station as the intended recipient. If the target mobile station receives the page message, the target mobile station may respond by transmitting a page response message in an access channel.
However, the paging channel in a given wireless coverage area (such as a cell or sector) may be a broadcast channel that is monitored by all of the mobile stations operating in that wireless coverage area. Consequently, even though a page message may be intended for one specific mobile station, the page message may be received by multiple mobile stations. In order to use the paging channel more efficiently, the paging channel may be divided into multiple time slots and different mobile stations may monitor different time slots. As a result, the network may deliver a more focused page message by transmitting the page message in the time slot that is being monitored by the mobile station intended to receive it.
Wireless networks, however, are typically less focused with respect to where to transmit a page message intended for a specific mobile station. In order to reach a specific mobile station, the network may refer to that mobile station's last reported location (e.g., the cell or sector that most recently received a registration message or other message transmitted by the mobile station). However, if the page message is transmitted into only the cell or sector corresponding to the mobile station's last reported location, the intended mobile station may not receive the page message. This is because the mobile station may have moved into a different cell or sector since its location was last reported.
In order to account for the inherent mobility of mobile stations, a wireless network may transmit a page message that is intended for a specific mobile station into multiple cells or sectors, for example, a group of cells or sectors that are defined by a “paging zone.” The paging zone may include the cell or sector corresponding to the intended mobile station's last reported location, as well as other cells or sectors where the mobile station may have moved to since the mobile station's location was last reported.